Happy 5th Blogiversary To Me

Yikes. Five years?! I honestly didn’t think I’d be doing this movie blogging thing for five years.

I want to say a huge thank you to the fellow bloggers who’ve dropped by in these last five years & had little chats with me on my silly movie & book reviews. I’m sorry I’ve been around a lot less this year and hate that it’s becoming almost impossible to spend any time on my blog or on the blogs that I follow. The whole reason for starting this blog was so that I could discuss movies with fellow film lovers since, in the real world, it’s hard to find obsessive movie nerds. You think I talk about movies all day long with people at work? Hell no! (That would be fun, though – where can I get a job like that?). So, thank you again to the special few who were here from the start and are still around and to all the lovely newer bloggers who’ve come along since. I feel like an “old blogger” now!

I always say I need to cut back on the time I spend here and I’ve done that this year but I’ll be doing it even more in 2018. I’d always kind of planned on quitting on my 5th anniversary but I’d miss the occasional movie chats as well as the one other reason I keep this thing going: to use it as a “movie diary” and keep a log of all I’ve seen & read. Because, as well as being a movie nerd, I’m also massive LIST NERD! I now have a record of every movie I’ve watched since 2012. Which is totally not important when the world is f*^%ing falling apart, right?! To psychoanalyze myself, I think it helps keeps me calm in the face of all the bullshit in the world. Or something. Nicely ordered lists! Nicely ordered lists could create world peace!!

So, I do have a plan to keep this blog going with a bare minimum of posts in 2018. I’ll focus only on reviewing 12 more Blind Spot movies (as I’ve thoroughly enjoyed that project) and the 2018 UK cinema releases I manage to see. The main other thing I’ll do is bring back an end-of-month post so I can at least very briefly discuss all I’ve watched in that month. At the moment, the movies I watch at home are getting no attention as I don’t have time for full-length reviews. I’ve watched a lot of really good movies this year and am annoyed to have not even mentioned some of them (For example, I really liked an obscure movie called The Frame.Here’s the IMDb link. I believe it’s still showing on Amazon Video.)

With these blogiversary posts, I tend to do a “Year In Review” post since it’s close to the end of the year anyway. This time, I’m going to do a “Five-Year Review“(!!). One thing I can really thank this blog for is that I’ve seen some TRULY brilliant movies since starting it because of things like my IMDB Top 250 Challenge and the Blind Spot project. Knowing you’ll be writing for a blog kind of helps “force” you to finally watch the more highly acclaimed classics you’d been avoiding for no good reason. Plus there’ve been some damn good new movies released since 2012. SO GET READY FOR SOME LISTS!!!! Let’s see if these can create universal harmony.

Here are some ranked lists of my favorite movies I’ve seen & the best books I’ve read for the very first time since starting this blog in November 2012….

My Top 20 Books Read Since 2012 (No one gives a shit about books so let’s get this list out of the way first.): 😉

Yep – I can’t NOT have a Star Wars film as my number one movie released since 2012. I can’t wait for The Last Jedi in a couple of weeks!

As you can see from these lists, I really do have this blog to thank for my newfound love of Studio Ghibli & Charlie Chaplin. I’d seen & loved My Neighbor Totoro & Spirited Away before blogging but decided to watch all the rest of the Miyazaki films for a month of Ghibli reviews. I’d seen no Chaplin at all before 2012. I highly recommend his stuff to all true film lovers, especially City Lights & Modern Times.

The other two directors I’ve been trying to further explore are John Carpenter (I’d already seen the majority of his best films, though) and Akira Kurosawa. That’s why they have the only two films in the lists above which I haven’t yet reviewed as I want to devote an entire week (or month) to their work someday in the future.

Okay – it’s time for me to shut up. You all probably stopped reading halfway through my lists anyway. Ha! I don’t know how many movies I’ve seen in these last five years (I’m too lazy to count, although I do have them all listed year by year on my blog pages). But I’d say I average about 100 per year. So… Narrowing it down to 60 favorites out of 500 isn’t too bad! Thank you again, everyone! Especially those who made it to the very end of this post… 😉

Now, as I feel really bad about putting The Warriors in second place after originally having it at number one, I’ll end this post with the ending of the movie. Seems appropriate. All our lives deserve appropriate songs that play over our end credits. Hmm. That sounded a little morbid. Sing it, Joe!

Thanks, Rob! And Happy 2018! I’m sorry you read all my rambling. 😉 I couldn’t get into Rogue One. Never did watch it a second time. I should try again. I’ve not watched The Colour Of Magic but loved the first book. I’d recommend that. I need to get back to reading more of those…

Congrats on 5 years! Glad to hear you’re not going to quit entirely. Just because some people blog every single day doesn’t mean we all have to to still enjoy it (thank goodness!)

Going through your lists, I already really needed to see The Warriors and Nausicaa, but now I really need to see The Warriors and Nausicaa! I’ve seen most of your post-2012 top 30 though, and a big 👍 to many of those. Some great, slightly obscure sci-fi choices in particular.

Thank you! And Happy New Year! Resolution: To not take a month or longer to reply to comments on my blog… Lol. Yes, you REALLY need to see Nausicaa & The Warriors. Now. If you haven’t in the past month. Do it. Today! I’ll wait. Go on. 😉 And, yes – I do love obscure sci-fi. 😁

Happy blog anniversary! And I’m glad to hear you plan to keep blogging! Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with it in all the craziness of life, but I too love this WordPress community of people who are passionate about film. 🙂

Thank you! Sorry I took so long to reply. Happy New Year!! 🙂 Yep, I stick around as I don’t know where else I could find fellow movie-obsessed people like me. I love chatting with people like you. Bet you’re looking forward to all the Marvel stuff coming out in 2018! 🙂

Oh yes, I’m already really excited! 😉 Infinity Wars is my most anticipated movie next year, and I’m also excited about Black Panther and Ant-Man and the Wasp. I’m skeptical about the Han Solo movie but I’ll definitely give it a shot!

Thank you, Satua! Oh man – I gotta keep up on comments. I don’t know what reviews you may have checked out now. I think one was The Warriors. Not sure if that’s your kind of thing… But I do love it. A lot. 🙂

A big congratulations on five movie-filled years! I always enjoyed movies before starting a blog, but writing about them helps me think about why I like them, which is why I enjoy reading your posts and the casual way you approach your reviews. Keep up the good work, at your own pace, of course.
Glad to see Nausicaa so high, but I agree with Rob, Rogue One is way too low! 😉 Don’t forget to check out King of Thorn; I seriously want to see what you think of it.

Thank you! And Happy New Year! 🙂 I’m finally trying to catch up on blog comments… I totally agree with that – Writing about a movie helps me sort out my thoughts on it. I sometimes change my mind about a movie in the middle of writing about it (they usually go up in my opinion as I think about them more). I couldn’t get into Rogue One. I should watch it a second time. LOVE Nausicaa. And really do want to see that King Of Thorn. I’ve not forgotten the recommendation! It’s on my wish list & I keep checking the price. I’ll grab it when cheap enough (I’m broke!). 😉